When Darkness Hides The Flames
by UkNoWnAnGeL
Summary: When Hotstreak loses his sight, his young friend must fight her own devils and his to help him learn how to live again.
1. The Awakening

When Darkness Hides the Flames

He was incased in darkness; the adrenaline coursing through him as he opened his eyes…and saw nothing. He was a strong man, a man who had lived his whole life by the barrel of a gun, a modern day warrior, a gangster, a thug, a criminal without hope for renewal with an attitude that would not waver. Angry at all those who looked down on him for his mistakes….all the things he had done wrong in the past and the man who had raised him. Like Father like Son right?

He was a monster in the people's eyes…setting fire with his words and his actions. Arson had been his only refuge… burning down the trees in the park and the houses of his enemies out of bitterness and spite. His name was F-stop… because if anyone, but her, called him Francis they'd get a hit to the jaw and a kick when they were on the floor without even having finished his name. She knew him by many names…Frankie…F-stop…Hot-Streak…but most intimately she knew him as her Francis, hers and no one else's.

He was her angel; she was his light in a world filled with darkness, his only hope at redemption. She was his only friend…and secretly his heart…and though he'd never admit it, she was the only thing that held him together and kept him from falling apart. After all…he knew he was broken… the stares and glares from people on the streets told him he was…broken…trash…but at least he had his pride and his physique.

Yet the only one who didn't look at him that way was Lexa…because apparently… she saw deeper than what he put on display for everyone else to see and though she never took advantage of it…he was soft on her…becoming softer for her…making him want something better, a turn around, a breakthrough…wanting to be told by the one he secretly loved that he was worth more than what everyone had told him with the way they treated him.

All the same…even though she made him want to shine…and through that bright smile she wore…and the optimism…she was just as bitter as he was at the world…or more precisely…the world she lived in-her world. Mostly…she was angry towards her brother and bitter because of her sister's… illness. Her older sister was diagnosed as a psychopath at the age of 9 when Lexa was 7 and her older brother Atreyu was 13.

Since their father left them and Lexa's mother passed away a year ago her brother has taken care of Lexa…and her sister Eclipse; taking charge as their legal guardian. Maybe the loathing she felt for her family…is what brought her and Frankie closer together.

He didn't know…but if he could help fix her like she had begun to fix him…maybe he could start making amends for his crimes. Only Francis knew the extent of her anger… while he feared losing himself to keeping in all his rage…she feared what would happen if she let all of hers out.

If only Atreyu would put Eclipse in an institution to save her sisters soul… or the countless others that she might harm with her lack of empathy. She sometimes wondered if they were even related…what with her ice blue eyes, platinum blonde hair and their own ebony locks and amber brown almost red eyes giving the siblings almost too great a contrast to be of the same blood…if only Lexa's face wasn't identical to Eclipses'…then she'd have some doubt.

She was also broken…not in as many pieces as Francis had lost, but she still had cracks. Even though they were both cracking into pieces…they both somehow ended up holding each other together…yet all throughout them scraping by… all it would take would be a good chisel and hammer to make them break.

But Francis Stone wasn't thinking of all this as he was surrounded in an aura of numbness…the prelude to terror. A terror that took hold once he was aware that his eyes were open and he could not see.

The man known as Francis Stone took a shaky breath like a man who had just been told a chilling secret he couldn't comprehend…because right now he couldn't comprehend…the darkness. Breath caught, arms at his sides, legs relaxed and the warmth of medicinal smelling sheets all around him. It all seemed so… real. It reminded him of a time before… a time when he'd been in one of these exact beds for three years. Only one bed could produce a suffocating mixture of self-loathing, anger, and weakness within him.

A hospital bed…a cot where the sick and weary came to rest…where the useless come to wallow in the pity of others and the place where the weak came to die…where only the strong got up and left as he had, never looking back. He knew this at once only for the fact that he'd spent three years of his life in the same exact place…now reliving the old feelings mixed with a smoggy presence of fear clouding in his head.

Eyes open…realization sinking in, his whole body tensed…his breathing now coming out in short terrified puffs. He shot up from his reclined position, back straight, eyes open…still not being able to see anything. Perhaps they had just left the lights off?

But as his breathing slowed and his body lost only a very small portion of its tension…confusion began to corrupt his mind like a mental illness, like a virus in his brain causing it to be impossible for him to produce clear thought.

'Why am I in here again? Is this a dream… why is it so dark?' Francis thought franticly.

His own hands, large and male flew up from where they'd been resting in the sheets that had pooled around his waist, to pat at his face…a moderately handsome one from his perspective…he wasn't as vain as he pretended to be. These hands…his hands had done things…many terrible things…but nothing an apology couldn't fix, right?

If only that were true.

Frankie couldn't feel any bandages around his head or eyes…so that wasn't what was stopping him from being able to see…he pressed harder to feel for bruising…no signs of being hit and having detached retinas…yet one thing was evident. The gift of sight had been stolen from him.

Yet still, he fought this notion…even as he began to hear birds outside…he guessed it was an open window. He turned his head in the direction of the sound; now something else became clear…his face was accosted by warmth. But that wasn't possible!

He grimaced…this had to be…a very vivid dream.

He shook his head, now looking at his lap, hands once more at his sides…without being able to see anything…not the crisp white of the sheets, nor the brightness of the sun glaring through the open window on the first floor of the hospital…he was…no way was this possible.

The sun shone brightly outside…into the small room of the large hospital, as a breeze blew in to ruffle a newly blinded young man's auburn hair. The young man began to shake as he choked on his own denial and with his head turned down…gasped out a noise of despair; suddenly, voices approaching outside the walls of his room.

With a look of fear and confusion he looked around as the footsteps seemed to echo in the room and then he heard her. The voice of his undoing… how could he face her now?

TBC…


	2. Taking It In

**Hey there! Just another chapter. I own nothing.**

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><p>"How can you just stand here and not care? When will he be awake again? Tell me! You must know!" A soft, anxious female voice question, now behind what could only be a thin door as Francis turned to look briefly towards the voice with…first hope…and then a gripping fear. Fear of letting her discover what he now had to at least consider…he had to consider that he would never see her again.<p>

As the door's handle began to turn he shut his eyes… it made no difference to his vision, but he feared what his eyes might look like and turned away from the sound to look ahead eyes open…he was fighting back the thoughts of his ruined future.

A clearly apathetic male voice now carried through the room as the door opened.

The doctor walked in the room looking at the small 5'1 girl with an annoyed yet subdued look. The doctor was obviously less than worried about the current patient he had under his care. "We aren't certain. The one thing we do know about the poison is that-"The doctor cut himself off when he saw that Mr. Stone was awake, hunched over, face hidden.

Francis could almost touch the shock in the room…how long had he been sleeping? The doctor walked to the middle of the small room a good 5 feet from the bed and let the platinum blonde walk in.

Francis…knowing the voice spoke up, his voice rough from disuse and naturally unique male drawl.

"Lexa?"

One word…one softly spoken name.

Lexa Monroe was a patient person…a person who had kept herself in check for a week in worry over her best friend. But when Dr. Miller kept evading her questions with constant replies of "we don't know" something in her had snapped. Bringing her to tears at the thought of never again hearing her dear friends voice.

Lexa stood amazed that her friend had finally awoken. She saw how he was sitting on the bed and thought for a split second how strange he looked…before making her way across the small room to embrace her friend.

Francis made out the sound of footsteps making their way quickly towards his person and looked up sharply only to have his side covered in feminine warmth. Unable to control the blush spreading across his cheek bones Francis was much more aware of her small body now that he could only focus on her…and nothing else in the room.

Lexa wrapped her arms around his neck. "Thank God you're finally up Francis…I missed you so-" when she pulled away Francis was unaware of the fact until she cut herself off with a gasp of what sounded like…horror. He realized that he was right about his eyes having some sort of defect within them that showed on the surface and turned away his head to the right towards the open window.

Lexa couldn't believe what she had just seen… His eyes they were-"What happened to your eyes?" he ignored her with a growl of frustration.

Placing her hands on his shoulders she turned his body to face her. "Francis…" His face was turned downward as she grew scared. Unable to hold in her worry she put her small left hand under his jaw to force him to look at her. "Look at me." She said abruptly, franticly.

His eyes were closed…his face twisted in a look of stubbornness…until it softened… and he sighed in defeat.

Francis couldn't hide from the truth any longer…no matter how much he longed for it not to be so.. he had to face it…face her. He was… forlorn and had lost all his hope at this point.

He took a deep breath opening his eyes…and hearing Lexa let out a choked breath…he said to her his own voice choked with sadness.

"I can't…"

His face was…scrunched up in anguish, but he couldn't shed a tear… not yet at least. Not even as he let out that deep breath in a single sob.

He shook his head and continued as Lexa watched his face…unable to look away from his dead dull green eyes. Eyes once a vivid spring green, brimming with laughter…eyes looking into her own so deeply for love and acceptance…now a dark dead green...with a white film.

He could feel her gaze on his face and it burned him, so he looked away ashamed. He heard her take in a breath and let it out…as if to calm herself…he could almost hear her heart skip a beat. "Francis…What happened to your eyes?" He could tell she was trying to remain calm by laced with that false calm was a tone of utter horror.

His head turned down blinking slowly a look of fear on his face…he spoke with a shaky breath. "Lex…it's been long and hard…But I can't bounce back from this one." He looked up abruptly…hoping her face was what he was facing…he began to break.

Now hyperventilating as his shoulders moved up down…his eyes filled with unshed tears…as this once hardened criminal…began to fall apart. He was strong…but the thought of becoming so useless… without meaning anymore…brought him to tears as his body shook.

Lexa was overcome with sorrow as she felt her friends pain… she knew him! She knew that losing his sight would be like dying for him. She sobbed out loud and quickly covered her mouth with the hand that had been cupping his jaw. With a voice of lost hope she cried out. "Not to you!" she sobbed behind her hand and letting out a choked breath brought the other hand slowly off her mouth to let both her hands caress his face.

Francis let out a quick breath…as a single forlorn tear snuck its way out of his right sightless green eye and made Lexa want to give him some comfort…anything. Francis felt her pull his head closer and swallowed hard when her sweet smelling breath hit his face; her forehead pressing into his.

He closed his eyes…refusing to show any more weakness and disgrace himself further…and Lexa…She watched him as he closed his eyes with the face of a man about to cry and as she watched him she could only breath out a small phrase…"not to you…" she whispered.

TBC...


	3. Still Just Taking It In

**Hey, just another segment! I own nothing accept the fanfic.**

He didn't know whether to push her away or pull her closer…He had told himself that he didn't need anybody…not even her. That he was strong to live without her once she dropped him like all the other people had… he brought both his hands up…lightly touching the small hands being tender to him, cupping them with his larger ones and marveling at the wonderful contrast of man and woman… he ran his fingers along her arms gently to savor the feeling of her skin…as it was the only way he could remember what seeing her had been like… he finally came to her head…where he grabbed the back of it to hold tightly to the hair he knew was platinum blonde… to keep her close to himself… wanting-no Needing her now!

More than he ever had before.

Lexa looked at the close face that belonged to the one that was close to her heart…still watching him with anguish and a broken heart, she let her hands glide against the smoothness of his face…entangling her fingers in his slightly too long red hair that was no longer spiked up in its usual style but down as the week he had slept…well who had the time for hair gel when you were in a coma?

There _were_ more important things.

He could smell her breath and taste the salt of her tears…that's how close they were to each other.

Lexa watched him through blurry eyes as his face became distraught and felt his hold on her grow desperate. Then Dr. Miller spoke up, coughed uncomfortably and said in a tone that was not hope inducing, "The poison that went into him attacks the eyesight specifically. From what we know it's not meant to kill. It appears to attack the retinas and nerves in the eyes, causing permanent blindness.

I'm sorry, but it's unlikely you will ever see again"

Francis became hysterical when the man had finished explaining to him that he would never again see the light of day in a voice that almost seemed disinterested.

He released his hold on Lexa and facing the direction he thought the doctor's uncaring tone had come from, he raised his voice, outraged. "You're talking down to me like I'm a child! You don't know anything! It's not your life that's ruined so don't say stuff about a life that you know nothing about!" The doctor had walked away however, leaving his words to linger in the room with Lexa and the weight of his misfortune crushing him.

He didn't know this until Lexa spoke up. "He's gone Francis." She sounded awful, like she had been crying for days…The doctor had left them with little hope.

Francis's face…it was agony in its rawest form teeth clenched and face now jerked downward. "Lexa, how will I…" He shook his head denial clearly evident in his annunciation. "I can't live like this! It's…It's a lie!" He sighed in a half pitching half shuddering voice that spoke of a man desperately trying to figure out how to pick up the broken pieces of his life.

Lexa could almost touch his despair like it was tangible. Alive, a living breathing blackness that took away the most important weapon Francis had.

She was blown away at how it could have all ended so fast…the talks they'd had about his life… now nothing. He had spoken with her about how he'd wanted a change, that he was tired of the nights spent in prison and the hatred that consumed him. That he'd thought about being a mechanic and making an honest living, but without his sight that was impossible now. How would he live now? How could he live this way?

What if some of his old gang contacts challenged him? How would he defend himself…how would he protect Lexa? Frankie put his hands on his head on his head and clenched his vibrantly colored yet useless green eyes shut in anger and frustration. He groaned, opening his eyes still seeing nothing, he moved his hands back down to his neck.

Lexa watched feeling helpless…never before had she'd felt this helpless…and it made her angry, so, so angry that she couldn't help him.

Francis's lips turned up in a fake smile and sighing he spoke. "Ha…he didn't even care…guess there's no sympathy for the wicked, huh?" His lips were turned up in a strange smile like a man that had accepted his fate and now laughed at the cruelty it had tossed him.

Lexa watched him, his blank stare rattling her bones and she thought, 'He was just going to become something great…just when he would have leaped out of this pit of darkness that his life had been…his world just grew even darker…why?'

The small room permeated with the scent of despair… and still with the smile on his lips was that strange…sad smile. Lexa reacted to it finally…she ceased hold of his head in her arms and put his head to her breast. Like that Francis was beginning to fall apart…it all came crashing down.

He jumped, his mouth opened, teeth gritted, eyes closed, and for the first time since he was young he cried…he turned his whole body, wrapped his arms around her and he cried. Buried his face into her chest forgetting himself and just sobbed quietly.

Outside the window of a newly blinded young man, birds are singing, trees swaying, and the sun bright in the sky. Inside this window is a young girl bitter from years of family troubles… and now broken hearted from the pain her friend has been forced to handle. He won't be alone; though he may feel it…she won't leave his side…no matter if he wishes it, because right now she needs him just as much as he needs her.

She's holding him close to her bosom and taking his fire into her being, that burns like that of hellfire.

As they hold each other the wind blows in and rustles their hair…

"Lexa…"

He chokes

"Francis…Don't let go."

She whispers desperately.

He pauses,

"…Ok…"

before he wraps his arms around her small waist even tighter.

**TBC…**


End file.
